Escada honours the high-energy horse that gave it the name

NEW YORK – How does Escada do New York Fashion Week for the first time? With the spirited horse that started it all 40 years ago and lots of updated power looks.

The spring/summer extravaganza was presented Sunday in racetrack mode on a grass runway. It’s the second collection for global design director Niall Sloan, who joined Escada in August 2017. He was true to Escada’s late ’80s, early ’90s heyday and marked the company’s 40th year with contemporary twists in fabrics.

There was an outsized red dot print on the front of white, wide-cuffed jeans. Red jockey silk slacks bagged from the waist clear to the grass were paired with an equally oversized green-trimmed blue blouse.

Escada’s founders took the company name from a race horse they encountered while photographing an early collection.